Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-10-01

to fight the devil with fire. When nine
hundred pieces of artillery commenced
belching forth their fiery flames and the
three forked lightning flashing from the
muzzles of some hundred thousand
pieces of musketry, with the clashing of
swords and the deafening roar Of artillery
and musketry, you would have thought
that the very thunderbolts from
heaven had dropped down TO tear
the earth asunder. Night coming
on, all was as silent n the grave. The
die was C st, not a voice heard except the
pitiful moaDs of the wounded and dying.
When the smoke from the battlefield made
the sun look as pale as it went down, rs 1t
were, into a sea of blood, leaving the dark
ness of night to, o~vershadow the wounded
and dying; when through the night tor
rents Of rain fell as though to wash the
remains of the dead preparatory to burial
in the morning; when the bright sun
arose and removed the darkness eft the
night, leaving the thousands OF dead SOL
diers and dead horses to the full view of
the multitude Of spectators, who could
but turn their eyes and weep at the awful
and sickeniDg sight.
The old ship of State rises above the
war clouds of Gettysburg and drifts south
ward, where Gen. Sherman by his march
through Georgia had prepared a harbor at
A~ppOnattox, where Gen. Robert E. Lee
surrendered his sword to Gen. Grant who
marched him on board the old ship and
sat him down side by side with JEFF Davis,
who was captured in his old grandmother's
dress. There sat the two i~ncendiaries, side
by side, that Stephen A. Douglas spoke
about. jeff. Davis, then a member of the
Senate, after engaging to 60 South lived
ninety days in the bosom of his country
taking items, and helping the Secretary of
War, J. B. Floyd, to smuggle away a part
ofOur artillery whilst he was preparing the
torch to be applied at Fort Sumter. And
now that the old government ship is under
full sail, riding the pillows of the ocean
with the American eagle perched on the
top mast of the Star Spangled Banner
floating in the breeze, his bill hooked on
the icebergs of the North, and one wing
stretched to the Atlantic Ocean, the other
to the Pacific Ocean and his tail spread
over the Southern Confederacy, crying
peace and good will; now that five humid
red thousand soldiers sleep in bloody
graves. all of whom laid down their lives
that this country might live, yet after all
the loss Of life and property, leaving
thousands of widows and orphans who are
knocking at the door of the Government
for bread, now after all this, they say We
We must forgive aud forget. Now as to
forgiving l can only repeat the words Of
our Savior in behalf Of the Jews, Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they
do" As to the forget part, / am a little
like the Irishman who was getting a little
too much whisky in him, who
said to his companion, And be ia
sus Pat, it's getting into my hair" Ask
the Seventh Virginia boys if they will ever
forget when Gen. Carroll las brave a Gen
eral rs ever drew a sword ordered the
bloody Seventh on a double quick to Gem
eteTy Heights, at Gettysburg, to recapture
the New York Battery l.. Ask them if
they will ever forget the battle of SpOtsyl-
vania where the CALLING fire of artlllery and
musketry moved the forest laying every
thing waste as though "a cyclone had passed
through. Then at Antietam where the
battlefield wa sOwn broadcast with their
wounded and dying comrades. There are
young men and young women here who
were hut children when the wal broke out.
Ask them if they will forget their mother
saying to her husband and their brothers:
SEQ and help save the country. | will
pillow, | will SOW, | will reap, | will
NOW and | will hoe to take care of these
little ones" Then they bid them perhaps
a final farewell forever, and kneeling in
family worship by their side, she prayed
for the safety OF their father and their
brothers; then in a loud tone of voice, plead
ed with the Almighty TO roll back the war
clouds that now threatened to destroy the
peace OF the great nation. FellOw-Citizens,
had You seen one half OF what have wit
messed with my own eyes, you would feel
as | now feel, and wonder as | now Won
der, that this whole audience is not in
tears. You would wonder as | now won
der that the tears are O now trickliug
down the rosy cheeks Of every young lady
in the audience.
We owe to the soldiers q debt Of honor
and gratitude that time can never efface.
Forget the soldiers? No! The stars would
sooner cease TO flame, the rivers sooner
cease TO flow, than we to ever forget the
debt we Owe. Time is rolling on. | will
soon have passed my four score years, and
it reminds me to say to this Young genera.
tion, that spring is the youth time Of life,
summer its maturity, fall the downward
course Of life and winter represents old
age, and time like an ever rolling stream
carries all mankind away. !, like many
of my old comrades, am on the home
| ,4..N.l IF 1;E. 1Nbn .,l,,r, 49,. ~, Al, L. 80,
of the forest. Leaf by leaf they fall. Ere
long they will all have passed away. And
when the last soldier has laid down
aud surrendered up his life to human tate,
aud gone TO answer roll call with his com
rades in an unknown world, far beyond
the shore Of time, may eachAnd every one
Of them find his name enrolled in the
Lambs Book of Life, in letters of gold.
Comrades aud fellow citizens, this gov
eminent is founded upon the rock of ages.
Let me say to all citizens of these United
States, either by birth OF adoption, stand
by your eOlOIs. stand by the stars and
stripes that float to-day over the free land
from the Atlanticto the PacifiC-a country
as free and pure as the water that flows
from tho crystal springs in the Rocky
Northumberland by the old Star Spangled
Banner, that floats today over Baltic and
Arctic seas unmOlested, h0nOred and re,
spected by the people of all nations. 10
conclusion let me say, stand .hTm rs the
rCcks of Gibraltar, so you may say to all
nations as FitZ James said ia 4 tragedy ia
ROderick Dhu, Come one, come all; this
rock shall lily from its firm base rs soon
as L."
MARTINS FERRY.